CNBC Is Ridiculous: Macs Come With Photoshop, PCs Need $600 Extra to 'Perform As Well

Regular people are probably confused by the re-inflamed Mac vs. PC ad war, which now focuses on price. Never fear, CNBC's Jim Goldman breaks down the true cost of PCs. Wait, Macs come with Photoshop?

According to CNBC's Silicon Valley Bureau Chief, PCs need the following things to "perform as well as a Mac": $50 a year for anti-virus software, $104 multimedia software, $100 music software, $140 "Photoshop—you get that with Apple" and $129 for a Geek Squad visit. Over $600 worth of extra stuff. Oh, and Macs get 4x the battery life, have faster processors and a higher resolution screen.

Um. What? Last time I checked, you can get pretty decent antivirus software for free, my MacBook Pro didn't come with Photoshop, and iTunes was free on OS X and Windows. For multimedia, you've got Windows Media Center, which is also pretty free. And Picasa—hey, it's free too—isn't a bad alternative to iPhoto. Okay, you might have to spend money on video editing software, since MovieMaker ain't so hot. But you know what? A lot of the stuff MobileMe charges you $100 a year to get, Windows Live provides for free, like SkyDrive's 25GB of storage. I would also like to meet this mythical Mac with an all-day battery, since we sure haven't seen it.

Look, there are some valid reasons to pick a Mac over a PC, just like there are valid reasons to pick a PC over a Mac. But you shouldn't smear blatant horseshit all over them, especially when it's already confusing enough for regular people, your audience, Mr. CNBC Silicon Valley Bureau Chief.

PC vs. Mac - both have their positives/negatives

Totally agree soumya! To over exaggerate the positives/negatives, does nothing for the consumer. Of course, there are consumers that will take these ads as gospel, when making their computing choices. People are getting more astute when it comes to making their computing choices these days, so these ads are more like fodder for YouTube, and late night funny video television shows, than they are informative bits of information used by the masses in deciding what to buy. Of course, they do say a lot about the company that finds them necessary to make and present to the public. But hey, political campaigns have been doing this forever, with candidates grabbing a few more votes by skewing the truth. -RoninV